RIO DE JANEIRO, June 26- Sportswear giant Adidas said Thursday it would stop using Luis Suarez, one of its key promotional stars, for World Cup adverts after his four month ban from football activities for biting Italian Giorgio Chiellini.
“Adidas fully backs FIFA’s decision,” a spokeswoman told AFP. “We do not accept the recent behaviour of Luis Suarez and shall remind him of the high standards we expect of our players.
“We have no plan to use Suarez for any other marketing activities during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.”
FIFA banned Suarez for nine internationals and from football for four months and also fined him 100,000 Swiss francs ($112,000).
Meanwhile, Liverpool said it would make no immediate decision on star striker Luis Suarez after he was given a nine match international ban and four-month suspension from all football for biting an Italian opponent while on World Cup duty with Uruguay.
A statement issued by the English Premier League giants’ chief executive, Ian Ayre, shortly after FIFA announced the ban, said: “Liverpool Football Club will wait until we have seen and had time to review the FIFA Disciplinary Committee report before making any further comment.”
FIFA’s ban for Suarez’s clash with Italy’s Giorgio Chiellini on Tuesday ended the forward’s involvement at the World Cup and was the third time the 27-year-old South American star had been banned for biting an opponent.
It has been estimated that Suarez’s latest ban will see him miss at least nine matches at the start of the new Premier League season in August.
